Slow UDF Performance

[bobmcrae]

I have a very simple UDF, which contains a few "helper" functions, like the one below (_getNetworkDrive).  I notice that when I call this function from my main script, which is approaching 3000-lines of code (big & some what complex), the performance of the UDF function _getNetworkDrive is very slow as compared to when I call the same function from a simple test script.  I do not have any different processing happening (e.g., launching another script) between the BIG script and the small test script.  I also confirmed that the CPU & memory are nominal (not significantly different from the test script) when the BIG script is running the _getNetworkDrive function.

To quantify the performance hit, I ran several times with the test script and see that the function takes about 30-mSec, with a few peaks near 300-mSec.  The same function/UDF called from the BIG script takes anywhere from 1-second (on the low end) to as much as 16-seconds!  So, we're talking about 2-3 orders of magnitude difference.  The majority of processing time seems to be in the For/Next loop that is iterating through the drives.  I suspect that the culprit is the FileExists($drive) conditional check, but I cannot understand why that would be the case when called from a larger script.

Any ideas of why the UDF function's performance would suffer  when part of a larger script?

 

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[Jos]

Not sure what the last couple of line are, or should that be the UDF you are referring to?
I can't imagine why there would be a significant difference either between a large and small script using the same UDF.
Maybe you can insert some consolewrite statements showing the actual time it takes in the different scenario's.

Jos

[water]

Can you at least post the _getNetworkDrive function (maybe it's the unreadable lines at the end of your post)?
Maybe your code runs into some kind of timeout when checking for a non existing network drive?

[bobmcrae]

How weird, I posted the code in the original posting using the <> (code) tool.  I'll try again here.

Jos, the times I was reporting were from a consolewrite of TimerInit & TimerDiff portions built into the function.  Hopefully, you can see that below.

Func _getNetworkDrive()
$t1 = TimerInit()
    ; Iterate through the network drives
    $driveDetails = '\\xxx.brickftp.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot'
    ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : $driveDetails = ' & $driveDetails & @CRLF & '>Error code: ' & @error & @CRLF) ;### Debug Console
    $drives = DriveGetDrive('Network')
    If UBound($drives)>=2 Then
        For $i=1 To $drives[0]
            $drive = $drives[$i]
            ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : $drive = ' & $drive & @CRLF & '>Error code: ' & @error & @CRLF) ;### Debug Console
            If StringInStr(DriveMapGet($drive), $driveDetails) And FileExists($drive) Then
                ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : TimerDiff($t1) = ' & TimerDiff($t1) & @CRLF & '>Error code: ' & @error & @CRLF) ;### Debug Console
                Return $drive
            EndIf
        Next
    EndIf

    ; No drive found, attempt to map
    $drive = DriveMapAdd('*', $driveDetails, 1,  $sftpCpUser, $sftpCpPass)
    ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : TimerDiff($t1) = ' & TimerDiff($t1) & @CRLF & '>Error code: ' & @error & @CRLF) ;### Debug Console
    If Not $drive Then Return SetError(-1, 0, 'Network drive (' & $driveDetails & ') could not be mapped')

EndFunc ; _getNetworkDrive()

 

[bobmcrae]

Well, I guess I just needed to "verbalize" the problem...I traced the issue to another UDF include (VirtualFlex.Memory.au3 by @prazetto), which apparently is causing the SIGNIFICANT slow-down.  I only use this UDF in one place and could probably do without.  So, in the absence of time to investigate, I am going to remove that dependency.  In doing so, the BIG script now returns the _getNetworkDrive function in a few milliseconds.  I suspect the VirtualFlex.Memory.au3 UDF virtualization causes the slow-down maybe @prazetto could investigate the issue?

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by bobmcrae
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